The estimated reading time for this post is 5 minutes
A brilliant idea is never enough. You need money, usually lots of it, to turn your idea into a reality.
You could ask your family and friends to chip in to fund your project, but chances are you’re going to need plenty more people to invest (unless you have very rich friends and family).
Crowdfunding is the Internet’s way of letting you pass the hat to take up a collection and raise money to help your idea become a business.
Inventors and businesses can use crowdfunding to raise money and turn their ideas into products they can bring to market. Backers can pledge money to support products and perhaps get the earliest production models at a discount over the full retail price.
Not all crowdfunding projects are successful. According to Time, over 200,000 Kickstarter projects have been launched and about half didn’t meet their goals so weren’t funded. About 10% of Kickstarter projects have been canceled or suspended. And some that were funded didn’t make it to production because the money wasn’t enough to support the project.
See, Digital Trends, The 10 most hilariously awful Kickstarter projects of all time
But many crowdfunding projects are successfully funded, some well beyond anyone’s expectations. Here are the five crowdfunding projects that have raised the most money to date:
5. Coolest Cooler
Crowdfunding site: Kickstarter
Promised ship date: February 2015
Actual ship date: July 2015
Goal: $50,000
Raised: $13,285,226
The Coolest Cooler raised $13,285,226 from 62,642 backers for a box that keeps your food and drinks cold. But to raise that kind of money, Coolest Cooler had to do more than chill.
The Coolest Cooler has been called the Swiss Army knife of coolers. In addition to keeping your stuff cold, the cooler also:
- Is a blender
- Charges your devices
- Lights the inside
- Rolls on Wheels
- Has bungee cords to pack your non-cooled stuff
- Has a Bluetooth speaker to play music from your phone
- Packs a ceramic knife
- Stores plates
- Has a cutting board
This video shows you how Coolest Cooler convinced backers to make it the second highest funded Kickstarter project to date:
https://youtu.be/l4irb2K1p8E
4. Ethereum
Crowdfunding sites: Bitcoin and company website
Raised: $18 million
Launch Date: July 30, 2015
Ethereum is a digital platform software developers can use to build applications. According to the Ethereum website, “Ethereum is a decentralized platform that runs smart contracts: applications that run exactly as programmed without any possibility of downtime, censorship, fraud or third party interference. Ethereum is how the Internet was supposed to work.”
Using Ethereum-based software, entities can interact with each other over the Internet directly and have a record of their transactions.
This video explains what Ethereum is:
Ethereum applications can include “digital currency exchanges, digital wallets, decentralized messaging programs, business reputation marketplaces and self-enforcing ‘smart contracts,’” according to The Wall Street Journal, BitBeat: Ethereum Presale Hits $12.7 Million Tally. The Ethereum website says that users can use Ethereum to create “representation of an asset, a virtual share, a proof of membership or anything at all.”
See, Tech Crunch, Vapor No More: Ethereum Has Launched
3. Pebble Time
Crowdfunding site: Kickstarter
Goal: $500,000
Raised: $20,338,986
Promised ship date: May 2015
Actual ship date: June 2015
Satisfied with the success of its first Kickstarter project the Pebble Watch smart watch, Pebble went back to Kickstarter to fund its watch with a color eInk screen, Pebble Time. With its rival the Apple Watch scheduled for release in April 2015, Pebble jumped ahead of Apple, launching its Pebble Time Kickstarter campaign in February.
The campaign set records instantly, raising over $1 million in less than an hour. The fever continued throughout the first day of the campaign, within 4.5 hours over $5 million had been raised. In under 12 hours, Pebble raised more than $7 million and less than 24 hours after the Kickstarter campaign was launched, Pebble raised $8.5 million.
By the time the campaign ended, Pebble Time had raised over $20 million, making it the most successful Kickstarter project so far.
This agnostic watch works with both iPhone and Android, and has a 1 week battery life.
You can read my full review of Pebble Time: Pebble Time — Is This the Smartwatch for You?
2. Elio Motors
Crowdfunding sites: StartEngine and company website
Raised: $37 million to date
Promised ship date: 4th quarter 2016
Elio Motors has a goal not only of raising funds for its new vehicle but also of altering the course of human transportation. The company has designed and is taking deposits for a 3-wheeled, 2-passenger vehicle that gets 84 miles per gallon (35.7 km per liter) on the highway.
The driver sits in the front seat and the passenger sits in the back seat. The car has a base price of $6800 and comes with an 8 gallon (30.28 liter) fuel tank, heater, air conditioner, power windows and more. So far over 46,000 cars have been reserved.
You can learn more about the Elio Motors vehicle in this video:
See, Tech Crunch, How Elio Motors Is Crowdfunding A Three-Wheel, 84 MPG Vehicle
1. Star Citizen
Crowdfunding sites: Kickstarter and Company website
Goal: $500,000
Raised: $90 million (and counting)
Promised ship date: November 2014
Actual ship date: pending
Star Citizen is a massive multi-player video game that combines space trading, combat simulator and first-person shooter features in an immersive online experience. The developers of Star Citizen used both Kickstarter and their own website to raise funds for their online game.
This crowd-funding campaign started on Kickstarter in 2012 with a goal of $500,000, eventually raising over $2 million on Kickstarter. The company also uses its own website for crowdfunding and has raised over $90 million in total to date.
See, CNBC, The man who made $50 million ditching Kickstarter
Get a glimpse of the immersive experience you might expect with Star Citizen.
Not all is rosy in the land of Star Citizen though. Some are questioning what has been done with the money and a lawsuit has been threatened by a disgruntled backer against the developers.
Learn more about the controversy at:
- Forbes, The Excess Of ‘Star Citizen’ Is The Price Gaming Pays For Upholding The Great Man Myth,
- Wired, Fans Have Dropped $77M on This Guy’s Buggy, Half-Built Game,
- Smart Speak, Star Citizen – The Long Con
- The Escapist, Eject! Eject! Is Star Citizen Going to Crash and Burn?
Your Thoughts
Have you ever backed a crowdfunding project? Are you surprised by the success of these crowdfunding projects? Have you ever wanted to crowdfund an idea? Share your thoughts in the Comments section below!
* Funding amounts via Wikipedia
* Driver image created from:
- Dawn, courtesy of Kay Gaensler via Flickr and Creative Commons
- Money, courtesy of Dave Barger via Flickr and Creative Commons
- Man in car, courtesy of OpenClipartVectors/18086 images via Pixabay
- Money bag, courtesy of OpenClipartVectors/18086 images via Pixabay
Hi Carolyn,
Informative post indeed 🙂
Honestly speaking, except for a little know about the term crowdfunding, I absolutely had no idea what all success such projects would get!
Yes, we have a few NGO’s and perhaps educational and religious institutions that would actually go ahead to make some wonderful crowdfunding projects that have shown great results, as one reads about them. However, I wonder whether they’ve reached such figures. The videos are amazing as well.
Thanks for sharing this with us. Have a nice week ahead 🙂
Hi Harleena, Yes, these projects show you what is possible with crowdfunding. You never know which ones will hit and which will miss. There doesn’t seem to be a common theme for products, sites or campaigns that make a recipe for success.
Of course, not all projects raise tens of millions of dollars. About half of Kickstarter projects don’t get funded. But these top projects show us what can be possible.
Thanks for your wonderful comment. So great to have you back, Harleena!
Based on the article above, the success rate of crowdfunded projec is very slim. I rather establish a small corporation and sale the shares of stocks to willing investors.
Hi Gilbert, Well if about half of Kickstarter projects get funded, then we can either choose “glass half full” or “glass half empty”. Perhaps the best approach is to do both, look for investors as well for backers via crowdfunding sites.
Great post after reading this post, give me a motivation work hard and make my own product to a brand . thanks for sharing.
Hi Arun, Thanks for your kind words. I’m glad you enjoyed this article and I hope you do have a successful crowdfunding project some day!
Hi Carolyn,
Some good ideas, apart from the car. I see cars here getting into a lot of accidents and they often have no other car involved and they turn over and the drivers get trapped. I’ll stick to my seriously out of date car that doesn’t roll and can take a little accident without being completely wrecked. It’s 18 years old next month and it is starting to squeak! I hope they fix it on the service and annual test!